When the standup comedian, an emerging performer, steps onto her platform in the Big Apple, she's not just considering what humor to tell. She also carefully considers which topics to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly criticizing the government,” she explained. And when she does, she makes certain it's not captured for social media. “I'd never publicly share material where I openly disparage authorities … I believe this is a habit acquired back home.”
Wang, 39, resided in Shanghai for nearly ten years, leaving in 2022. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into an intense period of “overindulging on democracy,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.
However in the year since the president returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the environment, she says. “In China, I knew the boundaries, while in the US I find myself on shifting sands.”
Wang’s fears mirror an emerging political reality in the US which numerous individuals from China, or people with experience in the country, find eerily similar. Enemies face exclusion. The president demands total allegiance. Journalists are targeted. Establishments are attacked.
Trump has openly expressed about his admiration for Xi Jinping, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described Xi as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in economic tensions on Thursday, the bonhomie between the two leaders of countries with diametrically opposed political systems was evident. Following years of optimism in America that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power become more open, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in China's path, instead of vice versa.
“The United States is undergoing an era of societal upheaval,” stated a constitutional law expert, an academic at Peking University. “The top leader, Trump, is trying to mobilise the grassroots in order to marginalize or undermine the elite … similar to what happened in China half a century ago.”
Ever since Trump unleashed what's termed a government streamlining body, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start in office, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Whether it is the mobilisation of young people to carry out the leader’s will, or cleansing organizations of those deemed opposition, Trump as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.
But since the upheaval of the early months of the new administration has calmed, an unfamiliar, distinct type of climate has settled in the country, which variously also feels familiar to many Chinese individuals.
‘The Lighthouse Is Dimmer’
The deepest similarity between the US today and the East is the suppression on open expression.
Deng Haiyan, turned Chinese Communist party critic, ended up in a controversy this year, similar to what he’d only previously experienced in China. Deng has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to pressure from the authorities.
In September, after the death of Charlie Kirk, he posted that the individual was a “scumbag”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for making negative comments regarding him – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family was doxed and he was accused of espionage seeking to divide the US.
“This incident was a real shock. I hadn't thought that something like this would occur in the United States – what typically happens in a repressive state,” he commented.
Deng’s backlash came from online peers, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has similarities with China.
“Regarding targeting dissenters and starting to surveil open discourse about issues deemed controversial … It's appearing here,” noted Maria Repnikova, an associate professor at a US university. “This is that you see in China now as too,” she added, stating that concerns are rising in the US of students reporting on teachers, a type of monitoring that has been encouraged by the CCP.
Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that progressive thinkers such as him used to look to the US for political inspiration, in part because openly discussing internal affairs in the country is dangerous. But now, “The US is no longer a ideal for Chinese liberals. America’s image has worsened across the board.”
“We used to see America as the symbol of democratic governance, but since the new administration, that guide seems to have become less luminous”.
Progressive Chinese, typically, at least in private, critical of the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than America’s, he stated. “It's somewhat painful to accept this reality … but post-COVID, authorities seems to be doing correct policies in environmental protection and developing electric cars and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by America, appear declining.”
The government's acquisition of shares in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the line between state and business is often blurred.
Recently, authorities stated it will take an investor in a startup focused on rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed essential for national security. The deals have made certain stakeholders concerned that the US is embarking on a fresh phase of state intervention in the private sector.
There are still major differences between Trump’s America and China. In October, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that required they only report on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned numerous presidential measures, an action that is impossible in China’s party-dominated legal system.
An analyst, who established of a consulting firm, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States might face the worst crisis of its history, far more severe than currently, and it will still be more free, more open, and more liberal than the East under its leader.”
Zhang observes that while numerous scholars in China were shocked to see American colleges capitulate to government demands regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in the East, the top universities are publicly controlled inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the state, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”
Still, Americans are beginning to adopt measures previously associated with more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously outspoken on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “The truth is, I am scared of the censorship in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid to criticise Xi now than say anything bad
